Explanations for Social Inequalities in Health

Michael Marmot; Martin Bobák; George Davey Smith

doi:10.1093/oso/9780195085068.003.0006

Abstract

Abstract Britain’s secretary of state for health recently published her strategy for improving health in England, The Health of the Nation (Secretary of State for Health, 1992). Among the sillier responses to this publication was one along the line of, “Health is improving anyway—why do we need to take action to improve it further?” It is true that there have been dramatic across—the-board improvements in life expectancy in industrialized countries. However, two phenomena stand in stark contrast to this general trend: marked divergence in life expectancy among industrialized countries, and persistent, even widening, social inequalities in health within countries. These realities made only fleeting appearances in the British government’s health strategy. Gender, ethnic, and regional variations in mortality also persist.

Keywords

Life expectancyInequalityEthnic groupState (computer science)Developed countryGovernment (linguistics)Development economicsPolitical scienceDivergence (linguistics)Economic growthSociologyDemographic economicsDemographyEconomicsPopulationLaw

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Publication Info

Year: 1995
Type: book-chapter
Pages: 172-210
Citations: 139
Access: Closed

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APA Style

                            
                                    Michael Marmot, 
                                
                                    Martin Bobák, 
                                
                                    George Davey Smith
                                
                            (1995). 
                            Explanations for Social Inequalities in Health. 
                            
                            , 172-210.
                            https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195085068.003.0006

Identifiers

DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780195085068.003.0006